Issue: 1/2025

THE MILITARY LEADERSHIP OF THE YUGOSLAV PEOPLE`S ARMY DISSATISFACTION CASES OF PRINT MEDIA IN YUGOSLAVIA AND ABROAD /examples from the 1970s/

Authors:
Nenad Ž. Petrović

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Civil-military relations represent a sensitive topic in every society and system. The study analyzes several cases of dissatisfaction of the top of the Yugoslav People’s Army with domestic and foreign print media. During its existence, The Yugoslav People’s Army (ЈNA) was one of the most important institutions of the second Yugoslavia. It had a special position in the public and society and it was treated as the pillar of the system. Accordingly, its depiction was idealized and therefore, it was beyond any reasonable and well-intentioned criticism. With the personality of Marshal Tito, who was its commander-in-chief, it assumed untouchability and “sanctity”. The first analyzed example is a letter of an active general that was published in “Hrvatski tjednik” weekly newspapers in 1971. The second relates to the story that was published in the literary magazine “Knjizevne novine” in 1974. The third is an extensive conversation between a group of generals on the topic of the character of the hypothetical war, published in the weekly news magazine “Nedeljne informativne novine” (NIN) in 1976. The first case was assessed as nationalism, the second as insulting to JNA officers, while in the last one, the problem was seen in the fact that the West used it to emphasize Yugoslavia’s concern about military threats by the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.